[kharn74]

I am about a week away from brewing my second batch of beer.  I decided to try a recipe from "The Homebrewer's Companion" called Belgian Tickle (Honey Ale).  Here is my dilemma, it really does not say when to add the honey.  I imagine you add it with the malt extract but some other honey ale recipes that I have been looking at add the honey about 15 min before the end of the boil.  any advice would help.

If anyone has tried the recipe, what kind of yeast did you use.  It calls for a Belgian Yeast culture but have noticed Trappist Yeast cultures also.  It is supposed to resemble a Chimay Red.

[denny]

Wyeast 1214 is Chimay yeast if you want to go that route.  I'd recommend making a starter if you use it.  If you want to retain honey flavor and aroma, I'd add it to the fermenter, not the kettle.

[EHall]

I add honey at flameout and retain flavor too.

[dhacker]

I do what Denny mentions and add the honey to the fermentor. FWIW, I use a mix-stir to blend it into the wort. Honey simply added to a fermentor will sink to the bottom. Seems to do the trick . . .   

[stlaleman]

Allowing the yeast to sit on the bottom is not a bad thing. The yeast will find and eat it as it slowly dissolves. This is how I make meads, sort of a continious feeding.

[bluesman]

I would also add the honey to the fermenter to retain the flavor/aroma character. Adding to the boil will volatilize some of this character.

[duboman]

We've brewed a honey weis now a couple times. The first batch we added the honey in the last 15 minutes of the boil and had a very nice mellow honey taste to the beer. The second batch we added for the last 3 minutes of the boil and had a much stronger honey taste and aroma. I liked the first batch and several others preferred the second. Maybe the next time we'll try the fermenter as others have mentioned, sounds interesting......

[captain_sousie]

Wyeast 1214 is Chimay yeast if you want to go that route.  I'd recommend making a starter if you use it.  If you want to retain honey flavor and aroma, I'd add it to the fermenter, not the kettle.

+1 for both the starter and when to add the honey

[skyler]

Always use a starter for every beer, but especially with certain strains like this one that can throw out a ton of banana.

[davidgzach]

I like to add honey at flameout to help it dissolve and kill any bacteria that may be present.

[garc_mall]

I like to add honey at flameout to help it dissolve and kill any bacteria that may be present.

+1

This is what I did, just added the honey at flameout, and gave it 10 minutes to pasturize before turning on the chiller. I am not sure that this particularly helped anything, but it definitely helped me RDWHAHB. Oh, and the beer tasted great.

[beersk]

Honey provides a very harsh environment for bacteria.  Basically it lacks the right nutrients for bacteria to exist and survive.  You'd have to take a sh*t in the honey for it to harbor bacteria.

[tschmidlin]

Honey provides a very harsh environment for bacteria.  Basically it lacks the right nutrients for bacteria to exist and survive.

Mostly it lacks enough available water.  Same result though, the bacteria won't live and if they do they won't grow.

[morticaixavier]

Honey provides a very harsh environment for bacteria.  Basically it lacks the right nutrients for bacteria to exist and survive.

Mostly it lacks enough available water.  Same result though, the bacteria won't live and if they do they won't grow.

as well as containing a small amount of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 I believe) but things can hang out on the surface (yeast mostly) and will start to ferment as soon as the osmotic preasure drops enough for them to access the sugars. so keep that honey dry!

but whatever might be lingering there will not be able to compete with the amount of yeast you would add for beer.

[beersk]

Honey provides a very harsh environment for bacteria.  Basically it lacks the right nutrients for bacteria to exist and survive.

Mostly it lacks enough available water.  Same result though, the bacteria won't live and if they do they won't grow.

Indeed.  I should prolly make a mead again, it's been a year.  I try for one batch of mead a year.